Pope contradicts Argentina’s president: state more important than ever
Published: Wednesday, Feb 28th 2024, 19:10
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Pope Francis has opposed the ultra-liberal views of Argentinian President Javier Milei. "The state, today more important than ever, is called to play an important role in redistribution and social justice," said the head of the Catholic Church in a video message on Wednesday on the occasion of the inauguration of the headquarters of the Catholic judges' association Copaju in Buenos Aires. "The god of the market and the goddess of profits are false deities that lead us to dehumanization and the destruction of the planet."
Although Francis did not mention the president of his home country directly, he attacked the cornerstones of Milei's world view with his criticism. At the World Economic Summit in Davos, Milei had said: "The state is not the solution, the state is the problem." The Argentinian president considers taxes and social security systems to be robbery and wants to reduce state authorities to a minimum. A comprehensive legislative package to deregulate the economy is currently stuck in Congress because Milei has not succeeded in organizing stable majorities.
"We don't agree with some of the statements, but that's fine. The Pope is a spiritual leader and we govern Argentina, where there are problems everywhere," government spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Wednesday about the Pope's video message. "These are sentences that sound nice but don't achieve anything. If social justice means taking something away from some and giving it to others, in Argentina it has only led to 50 percent of people living in poverty."
Despite personal insults during the election campaign, Pope Francis received Milei for a private audience just over two weeks ago. Before his term of office began, the ultra-liberal economist had called the Pope a "fool" and a "son of a bitch" who was promoting communism. After the audience in the Vatican, there was talk of "cordial talks". At an initial meeting the day before, the men had even embraced.
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